Letter from the Pastor
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May 30, 2021Now that the Easter Season has concluded with the celebration of Pentecost, we begin to celebrate the fundamental doctrines of our Christian Catholic Faith: Holy Trinity this Sunday and Corpus Christi next Sunday.
Today’s feast is the grand finale of all the feasts of the Church’s year; it is the synthesis of Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost. All three Persons of the Trinity contributed to and shared in the work of our redemption. The Father sent His Only Son to earth, the Divine Son, and our Savior Jesus Christ, became man and died for us. He was raised from the dead, redeemed us and made us the adopted children of God. After Christ's Ascension, the Holy Spirit became our Teacher, our Advocate, our Guide and our Consoler.
The feast of the Most Holy Trinity is the feast of gratitude for all the blessings of the Christmas and Easter seasons. Every Sunday when we come to Mass, the Trinity is worshiped, adored and honored. In every Mass the Son, once again, in a bloodless manner offers Himself in sacrifice to the Father on our behalf, in the power and prayer of the Holy Spirit. Every Sunday is the day of the Trinity.
The core mystery of our Christian faith, the Trinity is unreachable by reason alone. What we know of this mystery is entirely dependent on God revealing who He is to us. Our finite minds can never grasp how this is possible, that there is One God, in Three Divine Persons. Each person of the Trinity is fully and wholly God.
The Catechism explains, “The Father is that which the Son is, the Son that which the Father is, the Father and the Son that which the Holy Spirit is, i.e. by nature one God (consubstantial).” At the same time, however, the Divine Persons are really distinct from one another. “God is one but not solitary.” The divine persons are relative to one another. Because God is one, the real distinction of the Persons resides in how They relate to One Another.
All to say: God is a communion of Divine Persons in love. One thing this pandemic taught us; we are social beings, we need one another. We need to be in a community of love as well, first our family, then our Church and then our country down to our little neighborhoods. After all, we are all created in the Image and Likeness of God. May the Holy Trinity, the Communion and circle of love be reflected in our families, our Church and our country.
This is also Memorial Day weekend. A time for all Americans to honor and pray for those men and women, and their families who sacrificed everything for our freedoms. We think of all, whose love for Country offered the ultimate sacrifice of laying down their lives for the honor of our country, to fight against evil in the world, to right the wrongs of sinful humanity, to take up arms and defend us all.
All of these men and women were different in race, color, gender, religion but they shared this in common: they loved America until death. They considered themselves Americans, first. Sadly, in or culture today, we see the differences before we see what we have in common.
Memories are short, and as the Greatest Generation are dying off too quickly, we as a country are forgetting the horrors of war and what evil Marxism and Communism really is, we are forgetting our history, which always leads to the same sin repeated again.
Tomorrow, Memorial Day in Pearl River, there will be a parade at 10:15 AM to honor the War Dead. Bring the children, teach them, and line the streets and remember those forever young.May they rest in Peace.
Amen
